Ferguson earns praise for stabilising OZ team's rocky batting line-up

Melbourne, Apr 10 (ANI): Australian batsman Callum Ferguson has earned plenty of praise for stabilising his team's rocky batting line-up.

The 24-year-old right-hander has quickly become the leading batsman in either team in the one-day series against South Africa, scoring 138 runs at 46.00 in three matches including two half-centuries.

After seven ODI matches, the South Australian boasts a career average of 60.00, and the No.6 appears destined to move closer to the top end of the batting order in years to come, FOX Sports reported.

"To earn the opportunity to be around the Australian side and play a couple of games, if you had asked if I'd be in that position at the start of the season, I wouldn't have that was on the radar," Ferguson said.

Again in Cape Town, Australia's batsmen fell over to leave the tourists wobbling at 5-114.

It was left to Ferguson (63) and James Hopes (63 not out) to produce career-best scores to carry the total to 7-264, 25 sort of South Africa's total of 6-289.

Ferguson's 63 off 68 balls left both captains impressed with South Africa's Graeme Smith promising to do more homework on him.

"I saw him playing a couple of games in Adelaide on TV when we were there for the Test series. He knows his game pretty well. He has come in and performed well under pressure in both games," Smith said.

"He looks like a really good talent for Australia. He knows his scoring areas well and he has played well in those areas.

"We'll look at him and see what we can come up with. Growing up in Adelaide he has probably played against more spin than some of the other Australian guys so he knows his game plans a bit better," Smith added.

Ponting said: "Callum played his role exceptionally well in Centurion as well so he has been impressive in most of the games he has played." (ANI)